Every Christmas needs a Rudolph – something bright enough to guide us through the cold Christmas nights.
This year in marketing, that glowing red nose is retail media. Once misunderstood by marketers – much like everyone’s favourite plucky, red-nosed reindeer – it has earned its stripes as a cultural, creative, and technological force.
Christmas is a season where customers buy from between three and six brands, and switch rapidly between options. For a brand looking to grow, the magic lies in being seen in the right context, at the right moment, across the sofa-to-store journey.
That’s exactly where retail media shines: providing mental and physical availability, lighting the way for brands when it matters most.
The science that powers the red nose
Retail media is no longer just an add-on for performance marketing. It thrives on context, connection and creativity, spanning the whole customer experience – from in-store digital screens and experiential takeovers to radio, magazines, out of home (OOH), customer relationship management (CRM) and online marketplaces.
Each of these presents brands with an opportunity to create end-to-end campaigns, for online, in-store and on mobile, that guide shoppers through every stage of the funnel – from awareness, consideration to conversion. And all while remaining closely aligned with the moment of purchase.
Decades of empirical evidence, from Kantar to the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, have given us clear evidence: brands grow by increasing penetration. And that cut-through increases when a brand is front of mind for customers. This is true in both buying situations (what we call mental ability) and when products are easily accessible and purchasable (physical ability).
Most media channels only influence the first. Retail media uniquely impacts both simultaneously, and often dramatically.
Shining through the festive fog
The biggest gains in cut-through are almost always tied to physical presence, whether it’s more shelf space, end-of-aisle placements, or a first-row slot on the digital shelf. Visibility matters.
Marketers have been known to mistakenly attribute these gains to advertising. But the truth is that presence drives choice. Retail media reconnects marketers to the critical levers that actually move brands, bridging mental and physical ability in ways that traditional channels rarely can.
Sponsored product ads, in-store screens and digital shelf features are not just performance tools. They provide real-time enhancements to availability, giving brands guaranteed visibility, accessibility and discoverability at exactly the right moment.
Cadbury’s bicentenary campaign, themed ‘Yours for 200 years’, combined the brand’s heritage with Tesco’s reach to put customers at the heart of the celebration. The campaign ran year-round, with Tesco Media activating seasonal experiences including a co-funded Christmas grotto.
Alongside 600 family days out, Jet2 holiday vouchers and personalised ‘Day to Remember’ prizes, the campaign built both emotional connection and physical presence, reinforcing Cadbury’s visibility at the point of purchase.
Most brands could never achieve this level of co-ordinated, multi-touchpoint presence organically, especially during peak Christmas competition. Retail media created the advantage, offering a clear line through the Christmas fog, ensuring the brand was noticed and bought.
Turning visibility into seasonal magic
Retail media is reshaping how brands create experiences that are both memorable and commercially effective.
The channel excels because it’s driven by both creative and insight. Using shopper insights, predictive modelling and context-specific placements, brands can reach lapsed customers, identify new profit segments and target moments of category entry with precision.
It’s not just about immediate conversion; it’s about long-term brand building. As Byron Sharp emphasises in his book ’How Brands Grow Part 2’, mass reach remains important, but retail media enables a ‘two-speed’ approach, simultaneously reaching a large audience while engaging meaningfully in always-on segments during culturally relevant moments.
Retail media remains the only channel capable of combining mental and physical availability at scale. Traditional media like TV, OOH or social primarily build mental availability, while retail media is a growth engine that increases penetration, turns awareness into action and drives category entry, guiding brands through the cultured Christmas landscape. Yes, much like Rudolph leads the sleigh.
When the festive fog settles, the brands that shine brightest will be the ones that have harnessed retail media’s red-nosed advantage, guiding shoppers clearly, creatively and consistently from contemplation to purchase.
Nick Ashley is client development director at Tesco Media and Insight Platform
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